It has been clarified in the art that an insulation deterioration of a power cable such as a cross-linked polyethylene insulated cable (hereinafter defined CV cable) is mainly caused by the absorption of moisture into the solid insulation material to which a rated line voltage is applied. In the circumstance, water tree is induced in the insulation material, and is then developed therein to finally result in a breakdown of the power cable. Therefore, a method for detecting the insulation deterioration including water tree is required to be established, thereby avoiding the breakdown of an insulation material for a power cable in advance.
A first type of a conventional method for diagnosing an insulation deterioration of a power cable comprises a step of measuring an insulation resistance of the power cable by use of a megger.
In this method, however, there is a disadvantage in that a cable having an insulation deterioration immediately causing the breakdown can not be detected. Therefore, this method is not a sufficiently satisfactory method for dianosing an insulation deterioration of a power cable.
A second type of a conventional method for diagnosing an insulation deterioration of a power cable comprises steps of applying a direct current (DC) high voltage to an insulation of the power cable, and detecting leakage direct current flowing through the insulation, so that the insulation deterioration is diagnosed dependent on a level of the leakage direct current.
In this method, however, there is a disadvantage in that a power cable to which a rated load voltage is applied to supply electric power to actual loads is not diagnosed, because the aforementioned DC voltage of a level which is determined in diagnosis conditions is applied to the power cable. Even worse, there is a further disadvatage in that the insulation deterioration is badly promoted to result in the breakdown of the power cable in some case dependent on a degree of the insulation deterioration, because the diagnosing DC high voltage is applied to the power cable.
In view of these situations, another method of diagnosing an insulation deterioration of a power cable has been proposed to detect water trees generated in a deteriorated insulation of a 6 kV power distribution CV cable. This method comprises steps of detecting a direct current component of a minute level included in a charging current of the CV cable in a state that a 6 kV power distribution voltage is applied to the CV cable to supply electric power to loads of a power distribution system, and diagnosing whether an insulation deterioration has occured in the insulation by checking value and waveform of the direct current component. The detection of the direct current component is carried out by use of a ground wire of the CV cable, through which the direct current component flows.
However, this proposed method is not applied to a CV cable power distribution system having a line voltage of more than 22 KV, because the CV cable is connected to ground at multi-points. Even if the CV cable is not connected to ground at the multi-points, the detection of the direct current component is very hard at an installation site of the CV cable, because much noise is detected to lower a S/N ratio.